The Last Week

Well, this is the last week of our online Photography class in the virtual world of Second Life. It has been quite a trip...an enjoyable one, at that.

Last week we finished our group work on the news article. It was interesting to see how other group members worked. Our team leader Stiletto was an excellent leader and was able to help keep us straight on what we were to do for our assignment. We submitted things for each other to critique and then we posted our final photograph and inside magazine cover for her to submit for our group. She had everything turned in right after class on Monday, so we all got credit for the assignment. Our group really did appreciate all of her effort as our fearless leader.

Last Monday we went to Cae's Swept Away Studio after class and enjoyed seeing her wonderful photography in Real Life and in Second Life. She also has two other floors which display the photography of others in Second Life. Then on the third floor there was a surprise birthday party for our teacher. Cae had a big birthday cake and played "Happy Birthday" for the occasion.

This week we are to pick out six of our photographs that have been submitted over the summer sememster. Last night after class I was able to choose the six photographs to submit. Then this evening I was able to take them into Photoshop to resize them and put them on a blackground that was 512 pixels. After putting the photograph onto the background, there was room to put the title of the picture and our name.

I was able to do that and to save the photographs as Jpegs and as Targa files. It seems that Second Life prefers Targa files, according to some professional photographers that I have met in Second Life. That was easy enough.

Then my character Texanna went into the Sandbox at the T.S.T.C. classroom area and created some canvasses. She learned that is is important to have the desired canvas size before putting on the texture (photograph that was uploaded to Second Life). So I had to delete the first ones and then make one that was sized as large as I wanted it. Then I made copies by holding down the Shift key and dragging another one to another place. I went ahead and made seven copies and saved the original as a blank canvas. Then I put the Photograph "textures" on each one. I put them along the back wall of the Sandbox and added a plaque with "Texanna Schumann" above the group. It feels good to get that much done.

Oh, I just remembered that I need to go back and edit my Photograph objects to "full bright" because the lighting in Second Life is not all that great for photography unless there is extra light on the subject. Our teacher arranged lights to shine on our photographs in our Student Galleries on the Brown Classroom and in the Commons area of T.S.T.C. The lighting was really nice there in the galleries.

Oh, and by the way, our teacher said that he would give each student L$70 to upload photographs, because it costs L$10 for each one...(that is $10 Linden Dollars).

Next Monday we are to gather around the photography that will be displayed in the Sandbox area near our class. I suppose we will critique on the spot, and that will be nice.

Well, coming to the end of the semester is bitter-sweet to Texanna. There have been some wonderful learning experiences inside and outside of class. There were many learning challenges, most of which were very enjoyable. We have enjoyed visitors who have stopped by our class, and feel that we have been enriched by the whole experience of our virtual class in Second Life.